His half-smile’s lethally cute.“I thought you might walk with me—I have more ideas.”
I suddenly remember his joke about the fee.“You aren’t really going to charge me, are you?”
He sighs.“Clever little thing.”His grin widens.“I do think you owe me, honestly.I’ve got lots of friends who run tours and interact with tourists, and I’m sure they’d be happy to help sponsor your party, and they’d even let you leave fliers—for the party and the hotel—at their establishments,butmy help is worth something.Don’t you think?”
I shove past him and walk toward the little sign ahead.Lismore’s Finest Cobbler.“What did you have in mind?”
He jogs to catch up.“We talked about a date, and then you never called.You didn’t even reply to my texts.”He leaps in front of me, just as we reach the shop.“You don’t have to avoid me, you know.For payment, I just want an answer.If you think I’m a creep, or if you think I look like a troll that lives under a bridge, you can just tell me.I’m an adult, and I’ll take the news like an adult, I promise.”
Staring at him, an age-appropriate, fairly normal man who’s far too good-looking for me, but is otherwise fine, I just...I have no reason to be nervous, but I still am.“It’s not that I’mnotinterested.I guess I’m just scared.”
“Scared?”His smile deepens.“Of what, exactly?”He steps closer, looking down at me with those big eyes.His hair falls over his eyebrow.“I promise that if you give me a chance, you’ll see that I’m not very scary at all.”
“I think it’s less you that scare me,” I say softly, “and more the fact that I actually like you.I think Richard was easy, because even though the idea of dating him was exciting, he himself...wasn’t.Not to me, anyway.”
But the man standing above me, staring right at me?He’s very,veryexciting.My heart’s racing, my breaths are far too shallow, and heat’s rising up my neck.
He steps back.
My heart falls.
And he drops a hand on my wrist.
Now it’s pounding again.
“Then come with me to lunch.”
I laugh.“I just ate lunch.”
He growls, not like a caveman who wants to force me to do things, but like a dog when someone tries to take its treat.It’s actually kind of cute.“Fine, then dinner later?”
“I really can’t tonight,” I say.
But only because I already made dinner, and my kids still need to eat, so even if Ihada date, I’d need to make dinner.It’s basic—crockpot tacos.Slow-braised taco meat the kids love.Hannah and Clara are both capable of heating the tortillas and chopping tomatoes.
Cillian’s beautiful mouth is twisted.“It’s hard to know whether I’m being an irritation, or whether you’re really just super busy.”
“You’re not an irritation.”I think about what he said—he’s a big boy.If this doesn’t work out, if I can’t really date someone, anyone, I can just tell him that.He won’t break, or melt down, or stalk me.Probably.“Fine.”I sigh.“I can rearrange some things, and we can get dinner tonight.”
The smile that spreads over his face isn’t one of triumph.It’s not the smile of a guy who just scored a goal, or a guy who just shot a deer.I’d know, because I lived in Texas, and a lot of guys smile that smile on the regular.
No, this one’s a smile of hope.
I think about that smile all day, as every single thing that happens threatens to interfere with my plans.When Blaine gets home, crying, because she left her book at school, the book she needs to do a report on tonight, and I have to spend thirty minutes I don’t have driving down to pick it up with the help of a friendly janitor, I think about the smile.When we only have three tortillas, and I have to race to the store, I think about it.And when I finally text-confess to Sam and Vanessa that I have a real date tonight, and they squeal and show up at my door and press me into my room, gushing and giggling, I’m forced todescribethe adorable smile.
But when six o’clock rolls around, I’m miraculously wearing a clean pair of jeans and a sparkly Ann Taylor blouse as I walk between Sam and Vanessa on the gravel drive in front of the main house.
“Did we really have to walk this far?”Vanessa turns back with a slight grimace.“This place is so big that walking all the way over here takes forever.”
Samantha hiss-snorts in a veryunladylike manner.“Please.You were the queen of dashing through windows and ducking under tables before you got outed, so let her have a beat to flirt with Cillian before she has to tell her kids.”
Vanessa sighs.“I wish my cat was still in the proverbial bag.”
“Why?”Sam frowns.“Isn’t it a relief that your kids and all the stupid PTA moms know about you and Jack?”
Vanessa shrugs.“Maybe, but that’s not the only person who knows.”
Of course Cillian’s right on time, rolling up the drive and slowing as he nears.
